Friday, December 28, 2012

Quiet on the blog lately, I know, life has a way of taking up all of my time :)

I did a little bit of Christmas crafting this year :) I started out with 4 quilted tote bags for four work friends (we've been spending time together as a group for years now). They're featured in a previous post :)

I made a quilt for my mom:

This is the 9-patch pattern from Crazy Mom Quilts' quilt along, and it's the second time I've made this pattern. This time I added 2 extra rows of 9-patches and removed the borders. It measured 66" x 82" before washing, which should work for draping over the back of a couch when it's not being snuggled under (my mom likes to curl up on the couch with her books). I chose a gold/brown/orange colour scheme, with a few greens and reds thrown in. It's backed with a deep brown solid and bound in a beige leaf print.
---------------------------

And I made a quilt for my grand-niece Emilie:

This started as a quilting bee project, with the scrap-busters group on Flickr. I received 8 scrappy string blocks in the swap, and made the other 22 myself. It was a HUGE amount of work, and so very difficult getting all of those white lines to join up and all of those bias edges to stay straight, but I think it might be my favourite quilt that I've made, ever. It was really hard to give this one away!
----------------------------

I also made calendars for my mom and mother-in-law. This has become a bit of a tradition, I've been making them annually for many years (I should try and figure out just how many years... it's at least 8 anyway)

-----------------------------

And finally I made a little pouch for J-man, to hold the tablet that we got him for Christmas (we got one for his sister too, but I haven't yet made a pouch for her)

A Hot Wheels licensed fabric, lightly quilted with random straight orange lines and lined with a soft minky to protect the screen, with a velcro flap and handle to keep everything contained.

It was an ambitious Christmas but I got everything that I wanted to make made :) Now I have other projects to start, including baby quilts for a couple of expecting coworkers and an attempt at Project Life (probably digital).

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The bits let us sleep in until 7am Christmas morning, which would have been a lovely treat had the biggest kid of them all not been bouncing on the bed at 6, anxious for the littles to wake up :)

We had a lovely, quiet morning and early afternoon at home, then headed into the city to have dinner at the sister-in-law's home with most of C's family. I took exactly zero pictures, even though the littles were surrounded by their cute cousins. I guess I was distracted by all of the yummy food!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

I made 4 quilted tote bags for my four office mates with whom I enjoy hanging out, chatting, etc. Hard to believe that we're been working together 6 and a half years. We got together last evening for our annual Christmas cookie exchange, this year made all the sweeter with the addition of sharing our favourite wines and cheeses. I didn't take any pictures of our gathering, but I did snap this shot of the tote bags.

I didn't use a pattern, they're just simple 20 inch square quilted panels with a coordinating lining and handles. I topstitched them after turning but the lining isn't tacked down. They're reasonably substantial, should be able to hold a load of groceries or a towel and a bunch of books for a beach day.